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Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent Happiness

Author

Listed:
  • Steven D Levitt

Abstract

Little is known about whether people make good choices when facing important decisions. This article reports on a large-scale randomized field experiment in which research subjects having difficulty making a decision flipped a coin to help determine their choice. For important decisions (e.g. quitting a job or ending a relationship), individuals who are told by the coin toss to make a change are more likely to make a change, more satisfied with their decisions, and happier six months later than those whose coin toss instructed maintaining the status quo. This finding suggests that people may be excessively cautious when facing life-changing choices.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven D Levitt, 2021. "Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent Happiness," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(1), pages 378-405.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:restud:v:88:y:2021:i:1:p:378-405.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/restud/rdaa016
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Heads or Tails: The Impact of a Coin Toss on Major Life Decisions and Subsequent Happiness
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2016-09-06 01:23:46

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    Cited by:

    1. Sarah F. Small & Steven Pressman, 2024. "Introduction to the Symposium Celebrating Fifty Years of the Eastern Economic Association," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 50(4), pages 436-440, October.
    2. Victor Haghani & Richard Dewey, 2017. "Rational Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Observed Betting Patterns on a Biased Coin," Papers 1701.01427, arXiv.org.
    3. Angerer, Silvia & Dutcher, E. Glenn & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela & Lergetporer, Philipp & Sutter, Matthias, 2021. "The Formation of Risk Preferences through Small-Scale Events," IZA Discussion Papers 14679, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Mussida Chiara & Zanin Luca, 2019. "Voluntary Mobility of Employees for Better Job Opportunities Given a Temporary Contract: Insights Regarding an Age-Varying Association Between the Two Events," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 1-27, April.
    5. repec:osf:socarx:gzt7a_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Gabriel Leite Mota, 2022. "Unsatisfying ordinalism: The breach through which happiness (re)entered economics," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 513-528, June.
    7. Henry S. Farber, 2016. "Employment, Hours and Earnings Consequences of Job Loss: U.S. Evidence from the Displaced Workers Survey," Working Papers 589a, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    8. Alex Bryson & Babatunde Buraimo & Alex Farnell & Rob Simmons, 2024. "Special ones? The effect of head coaches on football team performance," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 71(3), pages 295-322, July.
    9. Andrew Leigh, 2024. "Ten Lessons for Economic Policymakers," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 43(2), pages 105-111, June.
    10. Qiyan Ong & Jianying Qiu, 2023. "Paying for randomization and indecisiveness," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 67(1), pages 45-72, August.
    11. Javier A. Birchenall, 2024. "Random choice and market demand," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 165-198, February.
    12. Chew, Soo Hong & Miao, Bin & Shen, Qiang & Zhong, Songfa, 2022. "Multiple-switching behavior in choice-list elicitation of risk preference," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    13. Arie Sherman & Tal Shavit, 2023. "Don’t be Lazy! Effort as a Pivotal Element for Present and Future Well-being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(8), pages 2599-2625, December.
    14. Mariela E Jaffé & Leonie Reutner & Rainer Greifeneder, 2019. "Catalyzing decisions: How a coin flip strengthens affective reactions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-14, August.
    15. Barokas, Guy & Ling, Hila Hindy & Sherman, Arie & Shavit, Tal, 2024. "To change or not to change? – Status quo bias and happiness," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 656-671.
    16. Chiara Mussida & Luca Zanin, 2020. "I found a better job opportunity! Voluntary job mobility of employees and temporary contracts before and after the great recession in France, Italy and Spain," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 47-98, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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